LinkedIn is the largest professional (online) network in the world. The majority has 3 questions: “What’s in it for me?”, “I have a profile, now what?” and “How to get more results without spending a lot of time?”

give away

1 million books

for FREE!

Why?

To actively stimulate the economy! Too many people are looking for new customers, new employees or a new job. They are hardly using LinkedIn, because they don’t know the platform well enough!

At the same time, we are raising 1 million dollar for charity! Check out our website www.how-to-really-use-linkedin.com for more info. And remember to download the book for FREE as well! (English and Dutch versions!)

Wise words indeed, from Lenny’s song “Can’t Get You off of my Mind”. What I particularly would like to ask is, how do you feel your soul? When do you know you are feeling your soul?

Interesting, right? Let me know if you have found the answer…

We sometimes do things that really fulfill us or are so in line with who we are. Does this mean we are feeling our soul?

I told you the Banana Man Kevin‘s story already. When he watched the BBC documentary, was his soul touched? Was that the reason he would spend all his savings on feeding starving children. The drive to do that was much higher than himself. He told me he could not think of anything else. It was impossible to do something else…Does this mean he was feeling his soul?

What about that indescribable feeling you get when you meet your soulmate? By the way, what is a soulmate? Wikipedia tells us: “A soulmate or soul mate is a person with whom one has a feeling of deep and natural affinity, love, intimacy, sexuality, spirituality, and/orcompatibility. A related concept is that of the twin flame or twin soul – which is thought to be the ultimate soulmate, the one and only other half of one’s soul, for which all souls are driven to find and join.”

So, are we now talking about our own soul or that of our soulmate too? Are we 1 soul? Can we touch it? How?

I am doing research on this. If you have any answers, I invite you to share them. We might get a feeling for it 🙂

eDay is a community initiative designed to raise awareness of the benefits of recycling computers and the hazardous nature of electronic waste (e-waste), while offering an easy way for households and schools to dispose of old computers and mobile phones in an environmentally sustainable manner. Through Rotary North Harbour, I commited to contribute and give back to New Zealand by participating as a volunteer for this eDay.

As part of Crew 11, I was in charge of interviewing drivers about their awareness of e-waste issues. Here where my questions :

How did you hear about eDay?

What is the main reason for bringing your computer waste here today?

If there was no eDay, how would you dispose of your computer waste?

What other e-waste do you have that you would like to recycle?

Would you like to hear about today’s results and eDay updates via email?

By giving back to the community and in this case a project that fits rather well with what I do. My public speaking, training and coaching about Genius Shortcuts is mainly focused on using the computer in an easier, more efficient way. So, it makes perfect sense to contribute some of my time to an event like eDay. Most of you already know that I dedicate about 10% of my time to charities and good causes. Our main project is Go Bananas, which will get a kiwi chapter in the near future…

Although we had rain and quite some wind, lots of people where bringing in their e-waste. These are the results of our eDay : 1,128 cars bringing in 46 tonnes of e-waste! In total 16,391 cars delivered 966 tonnes of e-waste! An awesome result! If you want to know more about e-waste and eDay in particular, I recommend you to visit eDay’s official website.

Oh, did I tell you several famous Kiwis attended this event? One of them was Peter Fox (Olympics – Sailing), who participated at our North Shore City event.

What if you could feed hungry people by knowing the meaning of a word? No, this is NOT a tricky question. This is actually what FreeRice.com does. You simply answer a multiple choice question and for every correct answer, Freerice.com donates 10 grams of rice through the UN World Food Programme to help end hunger.

According to the United Nations, 25,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes, most of them children. FreeRice.com was founded in October 2007 by John Breen and he donated the site to the UN World Food Program in March 2009. In making the donation, Mr. Breen expressed his hopes that FreeRice will be able to grow over the coming years, helping to feed and educate as many people as possible throughout the world. A great example of how 1 person make a real difference! FreeRice.com donated 66,849,742,200 grains of rice so far.

If FreeRice.com has the rice to give, why not give it all away right now? Great question. Well, FreeRice.com is not sitting on a pile of rice. All the players are earning it 10 grains at a time. Here is how it works. When you play the game, sponsor banners appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these banners is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people.

Though 10 grains of rice may seem like a small amount, remeber there are thousands of other people playing at the same time (easily 40,000 users/day). It is everyone together that makes the difference. And so can you… Imagine if you start the day with answering 1 question right…

So, my advice is to play this game once every day. You’ll extend your vocalubary and help the UN World Food Programme to end hunger.

PS : There are a number of other subjects available like Art, Chemistry, Geography, Math and Languages (French, German, Italian, Spanish).

People ask me sometimes why I give away 10% of my time to charity. Yes, “Contribute” is important. I am one of the many people that are part of another generation. The trendwatchers call us “Generation G” now. And yes, the G stands for Generosity, not Greed, although a lot of companies are still in the Greed-modus.

“GENERATION G captures the growing importance of ‘generosity’ as a leading societal and business mindset. As consumers are disgusted with greed and its current dire consequences for the economy—and while that same upheaval has them longing more than ever for institutions that care—the need for more generosity beautifully coincides with the ongoing (and pre-recession) emergence of an online-fueled culture of individuals who share, give, engage, create and collaborate in large numbers.

In fact, for many, sharing a passion and receiving recognition have replaced ‘taking’ as the new status symbol. Businesses should follow this societal/behavioral shift, however much it may oppose their decades-old devotion to me, myself and I.”

I couldn’t have said it more beautifully. The true spirit of contribution! I love it! And I recommend you to read the complete article. Next to a full explenation it also gives in-depth info about the 3 trend-drivers for Generation G:

Recession and Consumer Disgust

Longing for Institutions that care

For individuals, giving is already the new taking and sharing is the new giving

They also provide insights in 8 ways for corporations to join the Generation G :

CO-DONATE

ECO-GENEROSITY

FREE LOVE

BRAND BUTLERS

PERKONOMICS

TRYVERTISING

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS (RAK)

(F)RIGID NO MORE

You see, it is worthwile to create a difference… a whole generation is on it now! So, what will you do to become part of Generation G? Or will you be stuck in your current one? Time for action! Why don’t you start with reading the full article and get inspired by it?

Or why don’t you have a look at this outstanding slideshow by Neil Perkin, I am sure there is something interesting for all of you…

You all know that contribution is one of my top priorities (if you didn’t, look at my logo 🙂 ). Now the lovely people from Sage Hospitality Resources have come up with a brilliant idea: Give a Day, Get a Night.

Oh, by the way, Sage is one of the leading hotel management and business development companies with strong partnerships with Marriot, Hilton and Starwood, in case you didn’t know them…

So, what is “Give a Day, Get a Night” all about? When you GIVE 8 hours of community service to a registered 501(c)3 non profit organization (USA), you’ll GET a complimentary night stay or 50% discount on hotel rooms at all 53 Sage hotels across the USA.

At the check-in you simply show a letter from a registered non-profit organisation that proves you have undertaken 8 hours of voluntary work. This entitles you to 50% off the published price of any night in the hotel or when available a complimentary room.

Personally, I am convinced that this initiative is building a lot of goodwill and positive branding, which is an excellent approach in these challenging times for the hotel business. Andyes, I’d Give a Day if I where in the USA. Probably even a couple…

I wish more (business) people would step up and support charities in such a positive way. So, what would you do? What campaign do you have in mind? Let us know!

Sometimes people do amazing things to make a point. When I saw Severn Suzuki’sspeech, I was blown away by it. A 12 year-old Canadian making a speech at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Rio Summit in 1992.

First watch this movieclip and experience how this girl silences the world with her remarkable speech:

Now, think about being a leader and sitting in that conference. How would you feel? Did her message come across? Did she touch your heart? I am sure it did. So, why has so little been done about it afterwards? Why are our leaders still doing so little today? Remember this speech was given back in 1992!